Finally ditching satellite TV: opinions on YouTubeTV?

[HopperFan]

Oh one thing I LOVE about YouTubeTv is we set it up with only the channels we want to watch. So no more scrolling down a guide with tons of stations we have no interest in. And each of us can have our own guide if we want.

 

[Cadiewampus]

We did have it and liked it. Not sure why we got rid of it. We stream everything now. I did get a digital antenna and do pick up about 30 additional channels for free. If my area was not so wooded and the house was not down in sort of a valley would probably pick up a lot more.

 

[easyas123]

Oh one thing I LOVE about YouTubeTv is we set it up with only the channels we want to watch. So no more scrolling down a guide with tons of stations we have no interest in. And each of us can have our own guide if we want.

hmmm, that sounds great. Guess I didn't do a very good job w/ my research because I didn't check it out, but I will for sure now. Thanks for the tip -

 

[chattadisser]

We just switched about 4 months ago and I can't tell the difference from when we had cable. All the same channels, local news. My family loves that they can sign into the account via their devices and watch TV on the road or away from home. Don't regret it for a second.

 

[Turn the Page]

We have youtubetv and have been very happy with it.

The only minor annoyance is that we share the subscription with the rest of my family (which is permitted, we each have our own login credentials) but only 3 screens I think can be used at a time so sometimes we will get kicked off when someone else signs on.

The bigger annoyance is the commercials. I don't know if it is just us but our commercial feed is, no joke, 80% Discovery + commercials. Sometimes it is legitimately 5 Discovery + commercials in a row, often the same one back to back. I'm about to subscribe to Discovery + in the hopes of stopping the commercials.

 

[AussieFan8]

We have it (YouTubeTV) and honestly I totally forget that we don't have cable. We get everything we watched on normal cable channels. We do supplement with some other streaming services but would be perfectly fine with just YouTubeTV.

I don't understand the local TV thing as we get all of our local ones, news and all ... and we get tons of sports (even with cable Bally Sports was a pay service in addition).

You were able to separately add Bally Sports only to your YouTube TV package? I would be thrilled if I could do this.

 

[HopperFan]

You were able to separately add Bally Sports only to your YouTube TV package? I would be thrilled if I could do this.

No. What I was saying is that Bally was not part of our Cable package so the YouTube was an equal in that respect. As far as I know Bally is it's own streaming service. Guys in house said it is simply not worth it. Most of what they want they can get on YouTube (and previously cable) and they'd be buying just for soccer games. Now that MLS made the Apple deal it is a much better deal.

 

[DisneyClassicFan]

I've had it since this past summer and I like it. It has most channels that were in my old cable channel lineup so I still can watch Turner Classic Movies, Food Network, Game Show Network, etc. As other posters wrote you do get local channels. You really can't beat the price, if you want to add on extra channels it costs extra, but it's not an outrageous price, still much less than cable. (I only put cable as I've never had satellite.) I think the add ons shown were HBO Max, Showtime, stuff like that, which I didn't add. There are a lot of sports channels so if you have an avid sports watcher they will probably be happy. I've recorded a few movies and specials, it took me a while to figure it out as I was used to cable recordings but I frequently use it now. So as for now I have no complaints.

 

[tvguy]

Oh one thing I LOVE about YouTubeTv is we set it up with only the channels we want to watch. So no more scrolling down a guide with tons of stations we have no interest in. And each of us can have our own guide if we want.

You can do that with Dish also.

 

[tvguy]

We have Dish, Peacock and rabbit ears to get the dozens of "dot 2, dot 3, dot 4 etc" subchannels from over the air broadcasters.
We shared a YouTube TV account with our daughter, but we had a family meeting in November and decided to drop it. Okay, actually we suspended it. They had dropped the channels we watched (or more correctly, the channels were removed by the provider). Nothing there we couldn't get elsewhere.

 

[Robber Baron]

I'm pretty picky when it comes to watching tv.

6 months ago I finally got tired of my Spectrum cable/internet bill of $310/month.

I got Lumos, (Upgraded speed), fiber optic cable for $59/month and Youtube tv for $65/month. I also add HBO for $15/month.

I am paying 1/2 of what I was paying Spectrum.

I am extremely happy with it.

I have all the local networks & news. The ESPN sports channels and FS 1.

I have all the channels that I watched on cable.

I love being able to go thru the channels and remove the ones I don't watch from my guide.

The one thing I found is smart TV's are never really as smart as we want. The use of a Roku or Firestick gives me quicker loading than my Samsung TV's do. I use a firestick on all my TV's.

I have never had an occurrence of buffering. When I change channels it is very quick.

 

[MillauFr]

I just have a regular YouTube account. I don't think I could ever go back to "channels" and commercials where you have to watch the programs on a schedule. With regular YouTube I just search for the YouTuber channels I want to watch on my schedule. Also no commercials. I pay $12 per month.

 

[elgerber]

Oh one thing I LOVE about YouTubeTv is we set it up with only the channels we want to watch. So no more scrolling down a guide with tons of stations we have no interest in. And each of us can have our own guide if we want.

We have had it for a couple of years now, and agree with this. I love this feature. Everything we watch regularly is at the top of the guide. Some other channels are hidden so I don't ever see them. Love the unlimited DVR.
We get all our local channels also.
We don't get Bally sports but neither did Dish and many other local services. Bally is greedy and annoying, they are not well liked these days, so we just don't watch those sports.

 

[loves to dive]

We've had it for a few years and love it. We get all three big networks, ESPN and ESPN SEC (which is important since we live in Georgia - Go Dawgs - it's legally required I say that). We have Philo for a few supplemental channels but I really can't remember the last time we watched it. We also have Prime TV since we are Amazon Prime (Ground Tour is a must in our house). What we really like is we can record on it at home and watch the recording or live in our RV with our Mifi. Every once in awhile we get the spinning ball but I think that is more AT&T's issue (or the fact that Hubby needs to buy a new router and for some unknown reason is putting it off).

 

[kdonnel]

I just have a regular YouTube account. I don't think I could ever go back to "channels" and commercials where you have to watch the programs on a schedule. With regular YouTube I just search for the YouTuber channels I want to watch on my schedule. Also no commercials. I pay $12 per month.

With YouTubeTV you don't have to pay any attention to channels, commercials, or a schedule.

It comes with an unlimited DVR.

I set it up to record shows and watch them when they show up in the library. I have no concept of what night or what channel shows air.

 

[MillauFr]

With YouTubeTV you don't have to pay any attention to channels, commercials, or a schedule.

It comes with an unlimited DVR.

I set it up to record shows and watch them when they show up in the library. I have no concept of what night or what channel shows air.

Why do you need a DVR if all of the shows are already on the YouTube servers, and you just stream them on demand when you want to watch them?

 

[Nayan]

Why do you need a DVR if all of the shows are already on the YouTube servers, and you just stream them on demand when you want to watch them?

YouTube TV is, in simple terms, a cable-replacement streaming service. Regular YouTube is, well, YouTube.

If folks are looking to compare different services, check out thestreamable.com. They have a list of cable-replacements (including pricing and channels).

 

[kdonnel]

Why do you need a DVR if all of the shows are already on the YouTube servers, and you just stream them on demand when you want to watch them?

They are not already on their servers.

YouTubeTV is NOT YouTube.

YouTubeTV is a replacement for cable or satellite or an antenna.

 

[Deb]

Add me to the list of people who have had youtubetv a few years (about 2.5 in my case) and don't miss cable/sat at all. I get my local networks and I'm not a football fan but I do pick up mlb for baseball. Only thing I can think of I had with sat that I miss is being able to skip ahead 24 hours at a time on the guide. But really, that's minor

 

[JLTraveling]

Why do you need a DVR if all of the shows are already on the YouTube servers, and you just stream them on demand when you want to watch them?

Because the shows aren't on the YouTube servers. They're regular shows on regular channels (CBS or HBO or whatever) that air when the show airs. As others have said, YouTube TV is a replacement for cable/satellite, not a version of YouTube.